Victory over Revolution puts pressure on Sporting Kansas City for top seed

Twelve months ago, the Fire were playing for pride. Now they're playing for playoff position.

With two regular-season games left and a MLS postseason berth secure, the Fire (17-10-5, 56 points) will try to strengthen their hold on the No. 2 seed in the Eastern Conference on Saturday night when they face the struggling Revolution at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Mass.

New England (7-17-8, 29 points) has one victory in its last 15 matches. But as the Fire discovered in a 3-1 home loss to the Philadelphia Union this month, they can't overlook teams hoping to play spoiler.

"We learned from that," midfielder Daniel Paladini said. "Some of us felt like the playoffs were (clinched) and maybe we took a game off, which can't happen. … We have it squared away; we're back to the basics: Defense first and we know we're going to create chances."

The Fire have dominated the series recently, going 10-3-4 in all games since 2008.

"By no means you go in thinking we're relaxed and we're going to win," coach Frank Klopas said. "We want to keep improving and obviously finish strong for the playoffs."

While Sporting Kansas City and the Fire have clinched playoff berths, the rest of the East playoff picture remains in flux. Kansas City leads the Fire by three points heading into its Saturday match at New York. The Red Bulls dropped a 2-0 decision to the Fire two weeks ago but would lock up a playoff berth with a victory.

If the Fire and Sporting end up tied for first, the Fire would have the top seed via a tiebreaker. Four teams — the Red Bulls, Dynamo, Crew and D.C. United — are scrambling for the final three spots.

If the playoffs began today, the Fire would meet D.C. United in a home-and-home series and first-place Kansas City would play the winner of a Houston-New York knockout game.

The Fire finish their regular season next Saturday against D.C. United at Toyota Park.